The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) says it will convene an investigative public hearing into the recurring national grid failure in the country.
This is contained in a statement while reacting to Saturday morning’s grid collapse, the third in one week.
It says escalating incidence of grid disturbances often leading to marked outage in several states, reverse many of the gains recently achieved in reducing infrastructure deficit and improving grid stability.
“Initial reports on the grid disturbance that occurred this morning indicate that today’s outage was triggered by an explosion of a current transformer at the Jebba transmission station at 0815hrs and associated cascade of power plants shutdown arising from the loss of load”.
It, however, discloses efforts to restore supply have advanced with power significantly restored, as at 1300hrs, in 33 states and the FCT.
The commission says in line with the provisions of the Electricity Act 2023, the unbundling of the System Operator function (ISO) out of Transmission Company of Nigeria Plc is ongoing.
The expectation is that an independent SO would engender more discipline in grid management and optimised investment in infrastructure.
NERC says “in pursuit of finding a permanent resolution to the challenges of the national grid, the Commission shall shortly conduct an investigative public hearing with a view to identifying immediate and remote causes of recurring incidence of grid disturbances and widespread outages.
The date and venue of the public hearing will shortly be announced”.
